An after-hour phone call from your pediatrician on a Friday night is typically a life changing phone call. When words like "leukemia" and "children's hospital" are accompanied by the imperative,
you are then certain that this phone call is most assuredly a life changing moment.
When your inquisitive and fear-filled twelve year-old is going back and forth between asking a hundred questions on the ninety minute car-ride and making numerous desperate pleas to turn around and not to take him to the hospital, you wonder how to break it to him gently that his life is getting ready to take a drastic turn.
When you steal away to a family bathroom in the hospital with your spouse and fall to pieces in each others arms so that you can stay strong in front of your sick child, you determine in that moment that he will never see fear in our faces.
When support comes in the form of dear friends who sleep in waiting room chairs all night long, you realize that you never even knew what true friendship looked like until that moment.
That frightful night was three years ago today. While I can't help but look back onto that night with great emotion, I look back on it through the lens of a heart that has been indelibly shaped by each valley and trial that has been brought our way. I look back on it with a permanent reminder of God's amazing faithfulness.
Thoughts of the innumerable drops of chemo that has channeled through my son's veins over the past three years, memories of each time his hip bone or spinal column has been penetrated by a needle, and recollections of every grueling minute that he has been curled up in the fetal position due to extreme nausea, are inescapable memories of the hand of a faithful God.
You see, it has been during the times of great fear and uncertainty that God's presence was most definitely CERTAIN. It's not fully explainable.
His faithfulness was manifested in so many ways. We saw His hand in . . .
An oncologist with precisely the kind of bedside manner that this Mama needed . . .
A sea of orange shirts surrounding our home in prayer for positive results from the grueling round of induction chemo . . .
"You have to go tonight,"
you are then certain that this phone call is most assuredly a life changing moment.
When your inquisitive and fear-filled twelve year-old is going back and forth between asking a hundred questions on the ninety minute car-ride and making numerous desperate pleas to turn around and not to take him to the hospital, you wonder how to break it to him gently that his life is getting ready to take a drastic turn.
When you steal away to a family bathroom in the hospital with your spouse and fall to pieces in each others arms so that you can stay strong in front of your sick child, you determine in that moment that he will never see fear in our faces.
When support comes in the form of dear friends who sleep in waiting room chairs all night long, you realize that you never even knew what true friendship looked like until that moment.
That frightful night was three years ago today. While I can't help but look back onto that night with great emotion, I look back on it through the lens of a heart that has been indelibly shaped by each valley and trial that has been brought our way. I look back on it with a permanent reminder of God's amazing faithfulness.
Thoughts of the innumerable drops of chemo that has channeled through my son's veins over the past three years, memories of each time his hip bone or spinal column has been penetrated by a needle, and recollections of every grueling minute that he has been curled up in the fetal position due to extreme nausea, are inescapable memories of the hand of a faithful God.
You see, it has been during the times of great fear and uncertainty that God's presence was most definitely CERTAIN. It's not fully explainable.
His faithfulness was manifested in so many ways. We saw His hand in . . .
An oncologist with precisely the kind of bedside manner that this Mama needed . . .
A sea of orange shirts surrounding our home in prayer for positive results from the grueling round of induction chemo . . .
A birthday party with the best NASCAR seats in town given by complete strangers who loved us like family . . .
An unbreakable bond that was built between a brother and his little sister . . .
A small army of people that rallied together and prepared, packaged, and distributed thousands of BBQ dinners so that every medical bill from that point forward would be completely taken care of . . .
Not to mention a school that dismissed classes early every afternoon to join together in corporate prayer,
A nurse that sang "Amazing Grace" to ease fears during another unwanted needle stick,
A hairdresser that made house calls to finally do something about the handfuls of hair that continued to fall out,
An incomparable church family, amazing friends, and immediate and extended family that is second to none.
God has been so faithful! His Word has sustained me. His promises have uplifted me. His people have encouraged me. And His blessings have overflowed.
Have we had trials? Absolutely. But when I look back, all I see is His mighty hand holding us up. All I can see is His extraordinary faithfulness.
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:15
We are all one phone call away from a life changing event. Leaning on a faithful God is the only thing that will bring you to the other side of it stronger than before.
Camron is four treatments away from being done with chemotherapy. We covet your prayers for continued and complete healing. We pray for a long life ahead of him that will allow him to serve this faithful God who has given him a second chance at life.
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